20th August 1914, London.
Winston Churchill had returned to London, his meetings with Joffre had been illuminating, the General was confident of the success of Plan XVII, though he was somewhat concerned by the casualities taken in the attacks so far. Likewise worrying reports existed on the effectiveness of German Heavy Guns in particular their ability to use indirect fire.
Naval matters were progressing well, Percy Scott was driving hard to ensure that all Battleships, Battlecruisers and Modern Cruisers were equiped for Director Firing, he was working with both British Optics companies to get the best instruments in the ships. The Royal Navy seemed to have also found themselves a new Calculating Machine, developed by an Irish Accountant of all things, the code breakers and the scientists were busy trying to work out what it could do. But they had been sufficiently interested too near on commandeer a troop train to get the man to London to explain his device. The sixth Queen Elisabeth Class HMS Agincourt would be laid down next week and it was anticipated that it would be in service by 1917 at the latest. The follow on ships the R Class were less satisfactory , they were going to be slow and by the time they were commissioned there was every risk the Imperial Fleet would have more fast battleships, not to mention what the Americans and the Japanese were doing, the Royal Navy had obligations beyond bottling up the High Seas Fleet. The planning for the fleet composition was still ongoing, there was a strong push for more fast battleships to be built something like an improved Queen Elisabeth Class, but perhaps with triple turrets. Lloyd George would no doubt be apoplectic but as he was busy sending every trained soldier he could scrape up to France and Belgium, the Fleet would be the one and only defence for Britain.
The Siege of Liege was still going on, the heroic General Leman had suffered a severe wound in the battle, he had lost a hand to a shell fragment. His second in command had assumed command and had sworn to fight on inspired by his leaders courage. Churchill wanted nothing more than to meet Leman, he would speak of his courage in resisting the Hun in the House at the next chance he got. The Belgian fortresses had not proven to be particularly effective in and of themselves, but they had provided useful anchors for the rest of the defence. Namur and Antwerp were doing all that they could to strengthen their lines, every spare yard of barbed wire was being shipped over from Britain as quickly as it could be assembled, an order had also been placed with the Americans for as much of their gigantic production as could be had. Likewise sandbags were being produced both in Britain and in Belgium for the building of revetments and breastworks. III corps was still forming up, they had fully secured Bruges and two brigades had advanced to Ghent were they were reinforcing the Belgian defences. The King of the Belgians was very keen for the British army to take part in the defence of Antwerp, this was seen by Leopold as being even more important than the defence of Liege but Churchill and Sir John French did not want the British Army to get sucked into the fighting in that built up area.
The British army was better used as a strategic reserve, its tactical mobility was facilitated by the greater motorisation compared to the French or the Belgians, the effective firepower of the SMLE rifle and the excellence of the British field artillery would enable them to plug holes in threatened sectors.
Once the additional territorial divisions arrived and the yeomanry division the channel ports would be well secured and the regulars could then threaten any German moves either against Antwerp or should they attempt to bypass it and wheel into France they would be at risk from a sally by the British from Ghent.
The BEF was also completing its mobilisation into France, 4 divisions plus a Cavalry division again this force would double once the territorials had come into the line.
Churchill had also seen a disturbing report on the original SMLE MK1 jamming when being loaded from its magazine with the newer ammunition, this problem was confined to the territorial divisions who still retained the older rifles. One enterprising battalion, The London Scottish had already solved the problem, they had purchased enough of the Farquhar Hill rifle to equip themselves.
It was felt that this experiment was worth continuing as sufficient rifles existed to equip a further two battalions at this stage. Farquhar and Hill were both working as hard as they could to increase production of their rifle, currently their factory was making 75 rifles per day working 6 days a week, they felt they could have another battalion equipped in 2 weeks. They were also in discussions with Birmingham Small Arms to have them also take on production of the rifle if they were assured of orders. Birmingham Metals were producing ammunition for the rifles at their maximum capacity, willing to risk their company on the success of the new rifle and the need for its unique ammunition.
Churchill was getting a bit stale, his hours of work were onerous, he felt that he should perhaps go and take a direct look at this new rifle after all as an old soldier and veteran of the Boer War he was well placed to judge what worked. With that he rose from his desk and summoned a car, he would go up to see for himself.